By Wole Balogun, Ph.D.
I was extremely glad this morning (October 27, 2026) when I read on the FUOYE news platform that the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of my alma mater and former place of work, the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Ambassador Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina, has reunited with the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joshua Ogunwole. The peaceful reconciliation, according to the report elegantly authored by the University’s hardworking and amiable Public Relations Officer, Dr. Sunday Saanu, was initiated and graciously achieved by our distinguished Senator, Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, aka MOB.
It was indeed a heart-warming development, and I have since sent congratulatory messages to the duo at the centre of this exciting reunion – Prof. Fasina and Prof. Ogunwole – for a long-awaited development that will not only bring peace, stability and progress to this great University but also calm the nervous nerves of loyalists on both sides and the entire university community.
Indeed, as the sage saying goes, “No price is too much to pay for peace to reign.” For when there is peace, there is the much-needed peace of mind to work towards progress – to think out of the box, as Prof. Fasina would always say – and bring forth the developmental strides the University earnestly deserves.
Both Prof. Fasina and Prof. Ogunwole have come too far on their brotherly life journey to be torn apart by what, in my opinion, are the unchecked desires of fifth columnists masquerading as friends or allies. As far as I can remember, the respected academics have, for almost 40 years, maintained a very robust and progressive relationship, especially since they both remarkably earned their professorial chairs on the same day. Ogunwole has tremendous respect for Fasina as his boss, and they carried on like brothers and great friends, besides being exemplary leaders and astute scholars in the same field of Soil Science!
Prof. Fasina threw his weight heavily behind Prof. Ogunwole when the incumbent VC indicated his ambition to lead the University. This was not just because of their brotherly relationship but also because he knew Prof. Ogunwole possesses the qualities of a leader with the potential and requisite experience to take FUOYE to greater heights, building on the enviable height he had taken the University to at the time he honourably exited as Chief Executive on February 10, 2026.
As loyalists to both parties, some of us were really glad about the development then, as we regard the two men as God-sent to bring the divine vision for the University to fruition during their respective tenures. There was indeed a fierce political war from the opposition, who obviously did not want Ogunwole to succeed Fasina. These elements waged a bitter war internally and externally, deploying mostly media trials as weapons of their warfare. But as God would have it, victory came the way of Prof. Ogunwole as he went through the strenuous and stringent process of a keenly contested vice-chancellorship race that eventually produced him as the well-deserved successor to Prof. Fasina.
On the fateful day it was announced in Abuja that Prof. Ogunwole was the new VC, the world rejoiced with FUOYE at the dawn of a new era, and the university community was no doubt hopeful of a consolidation of the milestones already achieved by Prof. Fasina during his five-year highly impactful and progressive tenure.
But alas! What followed a couple of months after the change of guard began to paint the sky dark for the upwardly mobile University. In my opinion, factors responsible for the unhealthy development might have been the greedy underhand dealings of mischievous fifth columnists and sycophants, and perhaps misunderstandings arising from a lack of proper communication and ill-feelings being nursed by some vengeful elements who rather desire disorder in place of harmony.
In my estimation, the foregoing factors have always reared their ugly heads and made the political atmosphere in FUOYE rather toxic, just like we witness in our macro society, Nigeria, where politics of bitterness, greed, fifth columnism, sycophancy, selfishness and vengefulness hold sway and destroy the very fabric of leadership, forcing it to be toxic rather than accommodating and progressive.
What has therefore been an ugly recurrent reality in the communal existence of the University has been a very sound, excellent and progressive academic environment on one side and a highly toxic political arena on the other. The toxic political arena is, in my opinion, mainly caused by what a former Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, once described as “militarizing unionism.” In such an unhealthy situation, there is bound to be friction between a predecessor and his successor, instead of a harmonious relationship that further oils the wheels of progress, peace, stability and meaningful growth.
My one kobo advice to our principal characters in this theatre of reality – Prof. Fasina and Prof. Ogunwole – is to always sieve loyalists’ opinions and advice before accepting them; to think more of how they personally built their friendship and how they have maintained this robust and healthy relationship over the years, before allowing a third party to overshadow their reckoning of current happenings and even future occurrences. Patience, tolerance, understanding, cooperation, love, forgiveness, positive compromises and communal spirit, among other virtues, are much more needed now in FUOYE than acrimony and politics of bitterness. Personally, I know that the duo of Fasina and Ogunwole have great and noble intentions for the development and growth of FUOYE, and that is the more reason they should not entertain discord between them.
May FUOYE, my alma mater, continue to experience greatness like never before, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Dr. Balogun is an alumnus of FUOYE. He served as Special Adviser on Media Matters to former VC, Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina.